President Imammali Rakhmonovwill meet opposition leader Said Abdullo Nuri in Kabul May 17, Itar-Tassreported. This fourth round of talks--the first at this level--was to havetaken place in Moscow in January 1995, but the opposition refused to attendbecause it said that the Russians were not neutral... MORE

Vechernyaya Moskva reported May 11 that the centraltailors shop in Moscow was preparing a marshal's uniform for Defense MinisterPavel Grachev. This report, that the defense minister anticipated beingpromoted to the highest rank in the Russian army, was promptly denied by theRussian defense ministry press office.... MORE

Russian commentators on the Clinton-Yeltsin summit portrayed it as a victory for the Russian side. Kommersant-daily noted on May 11 that Clinton had backed down on the Iranian nuclear sale, although the paper noted that the Nuclear Power Ministry had heard nothing about the "military"... MORE

President Clinton's two days in Kiev have been entirely different. Following meetings with President Leonid Kuchma May 11, Clinton pledged his "strong support" for Ukraine, its reforms, the Chernobyl cleanup, and Ukrainian cooperation on nuclear non-proliferation issues. President Clinton in addition pledged another $38 million... MORE

Russian attacks continued in southeastern Chechnya May 11. Russian commander Lt. Gen. Mikhail Yegorov said the Yeltsin-mandated cease-fire had "brought no positive results" from a military point of view and that now that it was over, the Russian forces would crush the remaining Chechen formations.... MORE

White House spokesmen told journalists that the Russian opposition leaders who attended the May 11 breakfast with President Clinton in Moscow had been quite frank. Former Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar told the president that "negative attitudes toward the US" were widespread in Russia, and Communist... MORE

At another breakfast in Moscow May 11, Russian human rights leader Sergei Kovalev told the crowd that Russians "must make our apologies to the Balts as well as--I am convinced--to the Chechens" if Russia is to live in peace. Kovalev said that Russians are still... MORE

Voting 302 to 73, more than the two-thirds required, the Duma overrode the objections of the Federation Council and approved the law setting procedures for the upcoming parliamentary election. The Federation Council--Russia's upper chamber--had twice voted thebill down because it wanted more members to be... MORE

The "Russia is Our Home" electoral alliance organized by Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin opened in Moscow May 12. In a scene-setting article, Kommersant-Daily reported May 11 that the meeting was likely to be contentious: organizers have not had enough time to arrange for the... MORE

Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Lebed will announce his intentions at a press conference May 12, but if he leaves his post as commander of the 14th Russian Army in Moldova's Trandniestr region, that step could reignite the conflict there. Segodnya said that the Transdniestr authorities, Moldova,... MORE